Sats for 14 year olds to be abolished

Fergus Pickering

Whenever, in the dark reahes of the night, I worry that Labour might doit againI simply think of Ed Balls at Education and I realise that all will be well. No sane person can desire a Government that contains Ed Balls.

luke

Balls wrong foots Gove for the first time?

mark c

thats ok .. they still four or five years worth of marking to catch up on

mark c

thats ok .. they still have four or five years worth of marking to catch up on

Forlornehope

It is the SAT's at 11 that should go. The good secondary schools do not trust them for setting and repeat them or do equivalent tests at the start of year 7. They are simply a waste of effort for everyone.

dennis

Are this the ones that are showing that the government's modest improvements in primary education aren't being sustained as pupils move through the secondary system?

How convenient, then, to bury that bad news.

dearieme

Tests at 11, 16 and 18 - golly, back to the old days.

David Lindsay

As if there were not already enough to distract attention from what, where he is concerned, is the real story of the day: that not even one quarter as many people as were expected have opted for his new Diplomas.

And where are even they, Ed? Not at the public schools such as you attended, but do not mention in your Who's Who entry. Nor at the Lenin High Schools doubtless to be attended by your own offspring. Nobody is ever going to follow you to Oxford (at least, not in Science, Languages and Humanities - something like Engineering might be a different matter, and that might well be a very good thing) via these diplomas.

Alongside very highly academic education for those suited to it and (although there was never anything approaching enough of this) very highly technical education for those suited to it, there used to be, and there should be again, institutions providing both exactly as much academic knowledge and exactly as much technical knowledge as most people really need.

They turned out huge numbers of economically and socially active, culturally and politically aware people.

And they were called Secondary Modern schools.

Mel Blake

This test regime inherited from the Tories is long overdue to be scrapped. It costs a fortune and achieves bugger all.

Tiberius

So, what will be the next earth-shattering advance from the Dept. of Non-Education?

Reintroduce free school milk!

That'll get Thatcher and put another nail in the centre-Right coffin (but remember it can't be full-fat because of obesity).

[Ed: be careful to run all this past Labour's anti-Hockey Mom brigade. You may be able to sweet talk Yvette, but Harridan -no way.]

Paul Williams

A good day to bury bad news. I notice today with the economic crisis that the Government have announced the end to Sats and Secret Inquests.

So much for Gordon's promise of an end to spin.

William Norton

I'd be more interested in hearing from 14 yr olds that Mr Balls had been abolished.

mac

As a contemporary Snowflake would tell us sheep, "Comprehensives good, everything else bad". There is no other way.

@ Tiberius - Balls sweet talking Cooper? Jeez, what mental image that conjures up!

HJ

I am intrigued by David Lindsay's comment:

"Nobody is ever going to follow you to Oxford (at least, not in Science, Languages and Humanities - something like Engineering might be a different matter, and that might well be a very good thing) via these diplomas."

Why does he think that Engineering is somehow different? As the diplomas are clearly (although the government will never admit this) aimed at the less academic, how would you ever get to a top university to study engineering via a diploma? After all, you need A level maths and physics (generally acknowledged to be the two most academically challenging A levels) to have a chance of being able to cope with an engineering degree

True Bred Pomponian

Except that the tests at 11 need to be rigorous and accurate to allow proper selection for secondary education and a true assessment of primary schools. 11+ anyone?

Munisha

im in year 10 now.
to me thats not fair because we had to study really hard for the SATS and now we have to watch year 7s 8s and 9s have a easy ride through high school while we went through night after night after night of revision
honestly do you think that is fair?